Dexter, I hope I'm not one of the sleazy reps you're referring to!
Please be careful ///Mike. Mods that are not approved by BMW can and will void your warranty. With a manufacturer, they have to watch out for bad PR, and abide by the Magnuson-Moss act. That law essentially says that for a manufacturer to deny a warranty claim due to a non-approved modification, they have to prove that the modification in question was a direct cause of the warranty repair being submitted/denied.
So you put in a cold air intake with big openings in the filter, a pebble gets in and your motor gets munched, the claim will be denied. But if you put in LED running lights and your A/C stops blowing cold, they have to honor their warranty.
3rd party warranty companies are not bound by this law, because you sign a contract that specifically states that non-approved modifications void the warranty. There is no grey area. That being said, probably 50% of my clients have modded cars, and there are plenty of ways around this particular issue. But it is something to be aware of.
Dexter made a choice that he'd rather have lesser coverage for higher price to eliminate the risk of future claims hassles. It sounds like he weighed it pretty carefully and made the right decvision for him. The key with any extended warranty is getting it from a solid company with a good claims paying reputation. Otherwise the best contract coverage, for the longest term, for the cheapest price, does not matter if they tell you to shove it at claim time.
That's why I only work with two companies, both after I did a LOT of research on them with customers, shops that submit claims, BBB, online research, etc. And with one of them, an auto manufacturer (Audi) did a hell of a lot more due diligences than I could ever do, and selected them for their own dealer network to use when providing extended coverage.
Bruce